Did they just throw this randomly in the mix

Binance doesn't accept anyone from Iran and also considering that it has a strict KYC policy there is no way to circumvent that either.
They just did not mention when the violation happened. If they counted it since Binance birthday in 2017 and a few years later before the exchange required KYC on their users, it is very possible that there are users from Iran or other sanctioned countries, locations used Binance and laundered their criminal money through cryptocurrencies and Binance.
They only started to do KYC since 2021
How KYC Helps Keep Users Safe in the EEA & UKI suppose that could be the reason but at the same time pre KYC could also mean pre regulation of their business and anything done before that isn't exactly breaking any laws. Specially since as far as I know Binance never had any headquarters inside United States so they are not exactly subject to US laws.
users from Iran or other sanctioned countries, locations used Binance and laundered their criminal money through cryptocurrencies and Binance.
Just because someone is from a sanctioned country doesn't mean they own "criminal money" and want to "launder" it
